


Like the Emptiness of Space

by SincerelyV



Series: Duckvember Prompts 2020 [1]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Day 6, Drabble, Duckvember, Gen, Prompt: space, bc I like making her sad apparently, just a lil' Della drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27414088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SincerelyV/pseuds/SincerelyV
Summary: When Della crash landed on the moon, the first night wasn’t the hardest, neither was the second, or the third.
Series: Duckvember Prompts 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007547
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Like the Emptiness of Space

When Della crashed on the moon, it wasn't the first night that was the hardest, or the second, or the third. Back then, she still hoped Uncle Scrooge would come find her, knew Donald would take care of the eggs while she was gone. Back then, she still thought this was all a funny story she could tell the boys once they hatched. None of it was supposed to last longer than a week.

Now though, ten years later, staring at the rickety television set up on her workbench, Della thinks she may have finally found the hardest night.

Static flickered across the screen, sending a jolt of panic through her stomach, before settling back on the news station she had managed to find a few minutes ago.

The clearer the screen got, the more her heart seemed to hammer in her chest. Her boys were ten now, old enough to function mostly on their own, yet still so, so young. They weren’t at all like her drawing, as she had expected (she had never been much of an artist), but seeing her boys, really _seeing_ them, for the first time, hurt her in a way she couldn’t quite put into words. 

They’re small for their age, or maybe they aren’t, maybe they’re absolutely perfect (of course they are, they couldn’t be any other way), she didn’t have much experience with children and never got the opportunity to learn. But as she watched the screen, the boys smiling widely toward the camera, surrounded by uncle Scrooge and Donald, suddenly that was all that mattered to her. 

The newscaster’s voice echoed in her ears; Magica De Spell and the Shadow War, her boys saving the town right alongside the rest of their family. Pride swelled in her heart to near bursting as she felt her smile grow. They were growing up exactly the way they deserved to and, more importantly, _they were okay_. Donald had done right by them. Him and Scrooge both. 

She would have to thank them for that. Profusely.

Della knew she messed up- messed up _badly_. It was a fact that hung over her head every single day and she had spent every free moment since the crash drafting apology after apology in her mind as she tried to figure out how to look her boys in the eyes and convey exactly how sorry she was and always would be for ever leaving them.

The screen flickered again and Della knew for certain that tonight and those to come would be her hardest yet. Now that she had seen them, now that she knew her boys were okay (better than okay, she realizes, they were _heroes_ , just like the rest of their family), it was all she could do not to take a running leap and jump back to Earth through sheer force of will. Her family was so close that it was hard to stand one more second on the Spear if it wasn’t going to take her home. Not when all Della wanted was to hold her boys in her arms for the first time.

Instead, as if it could ever come close to being enough, Della reached out to stroke the television. In response, the screen flickered a final time, then went out, plunging the room into darkness.

Without fuel, Della was no closer now than she ever was to getting back. Yet, somehow, she was more certain than ever that her time on the moon was quickly coming to an end. She didn’t know how or when, all she knew was that someday- someday soon- the Spear of Selene was going to fly again, and when it did? 

Her boys would be waiting for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Home" in the Beetlejuice musical, I strongly suggest giving it a listen if you've got the time.  
> I wasn't originally intending to participate in Duckvember this year, but the prompts looked fun and this one was the perfect chance to write a little drabble I've been trying to get out for a while now, so I hope you liked it! It's not long, but I feel it got the point across, lol.  
> Leave a comment if you please! And give my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pastthebutterflies) (@pastthebutterflies) a peek!


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